I am S O L D on the Shelix cutter head..!!!!!!

[Dennis Peacock]

Oh My Gosh at the difference in noise, cut, and lasting cut quality.!!!!! :eek: :cool: :D

I spent today in the shop getting the shelix cutter head installed in my PM 15S planer. I've complained about the spiral head and very, very short lived knives for a long time now. I finally got the time to take the old head out and put in the new one that I've had for a few months now.

I started out with this cutter head:
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Several hours later? I had something that looked like this:
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When I drained the oil from the gearbox, I was surprised to find a lot of metal in the oil. I cleaned out the gearbox really well and filled it with Shell Rotella T 15W-40 (diesel oil) and will run a bit with that before I change it out to 20W-50. Here's what the oil looked like after I drained it:
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All said and done.....7 hours later....I tested it out. Here's what the wood looked like BEFORE I ran it through:
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And here's what it looked like AFTER I ran it through the new cutter head:
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My biggest surprise was how "quiet" this cutter head is when running and when planning wood. My cyclone DC is louder than my planer now.!!! :eek:

Needless to say.....this dude is a happy feller now.!!!!! :D :D :D :D

[Jason Whelehon]

The woodcraft store I work PT in just got a PM with a Byrd Shelical head.

The store manager refuses to let us fire that sucker up and run a few 1000 BF thru it... :(

[John Hedges]

Congrats They are amazing. I love mine and I bet your going to also. I have had mine for almost a year and haven't even come close to rotating the knives yet.

[Ron Bontz]

I was just at that Woodcraft store today. Ran my fingers over that Gold PM. Got all goose bumpy. Then I looked at the price tag and wilted a bit. Congrats on the shelix.

[glenn bradley]

Glad you like it. I do every time I turn the machine on ;-)

[Rick Fisher]

I have the General Helical Cutter. I was also impressed with the noise reduction. It makes a buzzing sound when cutting.

Cutting Eastern Maple, I noticed almost no tear-out. used to get chips in the surface, now the very odd rough spot. Very rare however.

Its great technology.

[George Stinagle]

Have those blades on my jointer, and they really do make a major differance. Jointed curly maple and no tearouts. Congratulations, you'll really enjoy the imrovement.

[Rob Grubbs]

I have that same planer with a shelix and the only thing that has given me any tearout is osage orange. That stuff is VERY hard and dense.

[Walt Caza]

Good show Dennis,
Your upgrade looks great, thanks for taking us along for the ride.
I hope you get many happy years out of your new cutting head.
I also find the Byrd runs quiet enough that I can talk over the planer,
without shouting...

Now that you have cleared the bits of metal from the gearbox oil,
I would be curious to see if you find any more next time?
I wonder if it was just original break-in bits, as the gears make friends?

You got me thinking about changing my own planer oil, to look for metal
bits from my fresh gearbox. (under 1 yr)

I don't think you will have any more problems with edge durability on
your planer.
be well,
Walt

[Rick Fisher]

That gear case oil is supposed to be changed about every 30 hours of use.

[Joe Meazle]

When you going to come put mine in?:D:eek::rolleyes:. I am glad you like thing.

[Dennis Peacock]

That gear case oil is supposed to be changed about every 30 hours of use.

My planer didn't have 20 hours run time on it. I guess I'll find out when I run it for a couple of hours and then change the oil again...just to see for myself. ;)

[Peter Quinn]

I'm working with a Casadeia Machine 24" spiral planer at work with knives similar to the PM and i can appreciate the short knife life issue. They just don't last. Glad to hear the shelix is a performer. May put one on my jointer this fall.

[Jim Hager]

Glad to see you did an upgrade on that spiral head. When I was down there last year I wondered about that system. Wish they had em for my planer, maybe someday.

[Alan Schaffter]

Dennis- the metal in the gearbox is likely from the pinion or the driven gear that are part of the feed speed changing mechanism in the gear boxes of all the 15" Chiwanese planer clones.

Since you are supposed to change speeds only when the machine is running, there will always be a small amount of mismatch when the pinion tries to mesh with the other driven gear.

My 15" factory refurb Delta came with a damaged pinion (somebody probably tried to change gears before the machine was running or when feeding and milling stock.) I replaced the pinion when I installed the Shelix since the speed changeover was really bad. After installing the new pinion the planer changed gears (speed) like new. I hope you inspected the pinion before reassembling the gearbox.

[Don Abele]

Dennis, nice to hear that you finally got the shelix. I remember discussing it a while back and you said you had it on your list.

While there are many other knife systems and techniques out there to give you a great cut - there is nothing out there that will give you the smooth/quiet performance of a shelix.

Our huge two-sided planer (36 inch bed) purrs like a kitten when taking 1/16" off of live oak on both sides at the same time :eek: When it had regular knives on it, it required double hearing protection (and was still loud!), could only take 1/32", and rattled like crazy.

As nice as my Hammer A3-31 performs, I'd upgrade to a shelix head if one were available.

Congratulations.

Be well,

Doc

[Steve Nouis]

That gear case oil is supposed to be changed about every 30 hours of use.
Rick I thought that sounded a little often for a oil change in the gearbox, I looked in my PM209 book which says every 2400 hours. The 209 does have a sticker that says to oil every 30 hours but I think thats for the infeed and out rollers. Love that Shelix head on mine. Steve